Stefan Salvatore
Stefan Salvatore (b. 1490s) was the second son of Giuseppe, Conte di Salvatore and his wife, and younger brother to Damon. The contessa died a couple of years after Stefan's birth, which he would later cite as a reason for Damon's hatred of him, believing that Damon blamed him for it. He and Katarina von Swartzschild (whom he later learned to be a vampire) fell in love during her stay at the estate, and their fathers spoke of marriage plans before Damon's return from the University. Damon and Katarina also fell in love, leading to a rift between the two brothers. In an attempt to reconcile them, Katarina faked her death. However, Stefan and Damon instead killed one another with Katarina's blood in their systems, Changing them into vampires. After awaking in his tomb, Stefan attempted to return to the estate, but ran after the servants screamed and asked for a priest. On a dark side street of Florence, Stefan decided not to feed on human blood. He decided to live beyond the gates of the city, feeding on animals, until his life was threatened by Damon and he departed. The two crossed paths a handful of times in the following centuries, when Damon would again threaten him. In 2013, Katarina lured Stefan to Fell's Church, where he fell in love with Elena Gilbert, whom he and Damon, who had followed him, unwittingly turned into a vampire. The brothers were forced to reconcile and work alongside each other to defeat her and defend the town. After Elena's death, the two moved to Florence, returning to combat Klaus, which resulted in Elena's resurrection. Stefan helped Elena adapt to being alive again, and was imprisoned in the Shi no Shi by Shinichi and Misao after being enticed with the chance to become human again. While being rescued, a fellow kitsune prisoner gave him a bouquet with the power to strip vampirism. Later, Damon accidentally used the bouquet, leading to conflict between the two. After Stefan recovered from his ordeal, he assisted in defeating Inari Saitou and the kitsune twins. In the new world, Stefan erased himself from the memories of those around him after blaming himself for Elena's need for a blood transfusion. Biography Childhood Stefan was born to Giuseppe, Conte di Salvatore and his wife between 1496 and 1499, as their second son. The contessa did not fully recover from Stefan's birth, dying when Stefan was aged three. Stefan speculated that this was the cause of his older brother Damon's hatred of him, and that he blamed him for his mother's death.Stefan Salvatore: It was always that way, as long as I can remember. Maybe it was because my mother never really recovered from my birth. She died a few years later. Damon loved her very much, and I always had the feeling that he blamed me. (The Awakening - Chapter 13) After the contessa's death, Giuseppe would get drunk and threaten to beat Stefan. However, Damon would take have him direct his anger at himself instead, taking the beatings for him.Stefan Salvatore: I remember something else! From when I was very young, maybe three or four years old. My father had a terrible temper, especially right after my mother died. And back then, when I was little, and my father was furious and drunk, Damon would deliberately get in between us. He'd say something obnoxious and – well, my father would end up beating him instead of me. I don't know how I could have forgotten about that. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 43) Stefan was given a proper education, learning etiquette and dancing from Marino."Signore Marino,' Stefan said through his teeth, wondering how Damon was able to get under his skin every time — today with a reference to their old tutor of etiquette and dancing —''" (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 2) He was taught to embrace his place in the nobility of Italy and as a member of the Salvatore family,"His tutor had often said it: ''An aristocrat should dress as befits his position. If he does not, he is showing contempt for others. Everyone had a place in the world, and his place had once been among the nobility." (The Awakening'' - Chapter 3) which he did to please his father. Despite Giuseppe's insistence that Stefan and Damon be respectable, he regularly took mistresses younger even than Stefan and made several disastrous investments.He was still Damon, and he'd be a lot happier without the weight of all that hatred and prejudice and cruelty. He wouldn't keep remembering his youth and the other young blades who'd mocked his father for being an old fool, with his disastrous investments and his mistresses younger than his own sons. Neither would he endlessly dwell on his own childhood, when that same father had beaten him in drunken rages when he neglected his studies or took up with objectionable companions. And, finally, he would not go on savoring and contemplating the many terrible things he'd done himself." (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 34) Becoming a vampire One summer between 1515 and 1518, while Damon was at University, Baron von Swartzschild brought his daughter Katarina to the Salvatore estate to recover from her prolonged illness. Stefan and Katarina fell in love, and, one night beside the fountain, she confided in him that she was a vampire and told her story about how she had been Changed by Klaus.The Awakening - Chapter 5 He accepted her identity and promised to keep it a secret.The Awakening - Chapter 3 Soon, Giuseppe and the baron spoke of marriage plans for the two of them.'''Stefan Salvatore: When I see how you look at Damon. Before he came home, you and I were together every day. My father and yours were pleased, and spoke of marriage plans. But now the days grow shorter, summer is almost gone—and you spend as much time with Damon as you do with me. The only reason Father allows him to stay here is that you asked it. But why did you ask it, Katherine? I thought you cared for me. (The Awakening - Chapter 9) When Damon returned to the estate from the University, he told Giuseppe that he was refusing to go back, an argument that Stefan witnessed. Damon also became close to Katarina, spending as much time with him as she had with Stefan, who became jealous, especially upon learning that she had told him that she was a vampire. The brothers forced her to choose between them, and she declared that she would give an answer the following Saturday.The Awakening - Chapter 9 On the Friday, Katarina arrived in Stefan's bedroom and exchanged blood with him, leading him to believe that he had been chosen.The Awakening - Chapter 11 On the Saturday night, Katarina told them that she had exchanged blood with, and wished to be with, the both of them, and had had her maid make talismans for them. The two almost came to blows before she stood between them, and she ran away in tears.The Awakening - Chapter 13 The following day, Stefan found Katarina's newest dress filled with ashes near a tree, and her ring on a rock a short distance away, leading him to believe that she had exposed herself to the Sun. He also found a note explaining that she could not bear to cause strife between the two brothers. Damon appeared behind him, read the note, and attempted to take Katarina's ring from him. The two struggled, insulting and blaming one another, and ran to the house before engaging in a duel as their father shouted from a window. Damon stabbed him, but, as he lay dying, he lifted his own sword and stabbed him in the heart.The Awakening - Chapter 14 Life in the dark As the two still had Katarina's blood in their systems, they began the Change. They awoke in their tomb, where they had been laid down side-by-side. They were too weak to fight given the small amount of Katarina's blood that they had, and Damon ran off into the night. Stefan, who found Katarina's ring in his pocket, went home, where the servants screamed and called for a priest. He ran into the dark, blaming himself for forcing Damon to become a vampire. In the dark side-streets of Florence, Stefan made several vows regarding how he used his Power and how he treated humans."Long ago, in the dark side streets of Florence, starving, frightened, and exhausted, Stefan had made himself a vow. Several vows, in fact, about using the Powers he sensed within himself, and about how to treat the weak, blundering, but still-human creatures around him." (The Struggle - Chapter 16) He decided to feed only on animals as Katarina did, eventually choosing to live beyond the city gates in order to do so.Stefan Salvatore: I was living beyond the city gates by then, half starved, preying on animals, an animal myself. (The Awakening - Chapter 14) Stefan knew that Damon had joined one of the Free Companies and was feeding on the blood of his victims, but went a stretch of time without hearing anything of him.Stefan Salvatore: For a while he joined one of the Free Companies, ruthless mercenaries whose business was to rob and plunder. He wandered across the country with them, fighting and drinking the blood of his victims. I was living beyond the city gates by then, half starved, preying on animals, an animal myself. For a long time, I heard nothing about Damon. (The Awakening - Chapter 14) One day, Stefan heard Damon's voice in his head, telling him that he had become the condottiero of his own company and was returning to Florence, threatening to kill him if he was there when he arrived. Stefan, fearing for his life, left his home outside of the city.Stefan Salvatore: Damon's voice in my mind was very strong. He said he was now the condottieri sic of his own company and he was coming back to Florence. He said that if I was there when he arrived he would kill me. I believed him, and I left. (The Awakening - Chapter 14) He remained mainly if not solely in Italy for centuries, thinking of it as his hiding place,"Perhaps he should go back to Italy, back to his hiding place. What made him think that he could rejoin the world of daylight?" (The Awakening - Chapter 1) and crossed paths with Damon a small handful of times, receiving threats from him every time.Stefan Salvatore: I've seen him once or twice since then. The threat is always the same, and he's always more powerful. (The Awakening - Chapter 14) Each time was a result of Damon tracking him down and attempting to make his existence as miserable as possible as revenge, before Stefan managed to escape."His older brother had been making Stefan's existence as miserable as possible for nearly half a millennium. Every time that Stefan had managed to get away from him, Damon had tracked him down, looking for... what? Revenge? Some final satisfaction?" (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 2) Katarina's ploy Starting afresh In 2013, Katarina secretly found Stefan and Influenced him to travel to Fell's Church, Virginia to start a new life.Katarina von Swartzschild: I brought you here, both of you. I put the thought in your mind, Stefan, the way you put thoughts into a human's. I guided you to this place. And then I made sure Damon followed you. Elena was here. I think she must be related to me somehow; she looks like me. I knew you'd see her and feel guilty. But you weren't supposed to fall in love with her! (The Fury - Chapter 14) He was tired of his life in the darkness, and no longer wished to be alone."But he was tired of living in shadows. He was tired of the darkness, and of the things that lived in it. Most of all, he was tired of being alone. (The Awakening'' - Chapter 1) He planned to use his Influence to get a place at Robert E. Lee High School, boarding at Theophilia Flowers' boardinghouse on the edge of town and feeding on animals in the Old Wood.The Awakening - Chapter 1 Stefan was followed by Damon (in the form of a crow) on the first day of term. He was forced to Influence the admissions secretaryThe Awakening - Chapter 2 and the headmaster,The Awakening - Chapter 3 which tired him. Sensing so many minds around him disoriented him after such a long time in solitude, particularly one mind, which he found belonged to somebody who looked just like Katarina. This disturbed him, not wanting to think about Katarina, and he deliberately avoided her. He also did not appreciate the way that Mr Tanner treated his students, leading him to humiliate him with his superior knowledge of the Italian Renaissance. When Tyler Smallwood and Dick Carter blocked Stefan's way to his classroom, Matt Honeycutt stuck up for him. Matt attempted to make conversation, which Stefan reciprocated, though he declined his offer to join the football team until deciding to use it as an excuse to avoid Elena. He watched her and her friends in the cemetery after being pulled there while feeding, feeling an explosion of Power behind him and witnessing them fleeing. He followed them, feeling an intense desire to feed, but instead smelt blood beneath the bridge. There he found a bleeding homeless man, on whom he fed but did not kill. He also picked up Elena's ribbon, putting it with his other relics. Matt informed Stefan that he had been accepted onto the football team, where he was quite popular.The Awakening - Chapter 6 At lunch, Caroline Forbes would drag him to the photography room to spend time with him, and also following him around after school, wanting him to attend the Homecoming Dance with her. As such, he was unable to socialise with fellow members of the football team or eat in the cafeteria. However, he began to talk to Matt, though never about his personal life or his family. Falling for Elena Stefan attended the Homecoming Dance with Caroline, hiding amongst the other members of the football team. He figured that it was safe to be with Caroline, as she meant nothing to him and he felt no attraction towards her.The Awakening - Chapter 7 Elena asked him to dance, which, after a moment, he silently accepted. However, they were interrupted by Caroline. He later heard Elena's friends say that Elena had left for the cemetery with Tyler, Dick and Vickie Bennett, prompting him to go there. He witnessed Tyler assaulting Elena, so he rescued her, throwing Tyler against his grandfather's headstone and hitting him before Elena stopped him. He offered to drive her home, which entailed returning to the boardinghouse where his car was. At the boardinghouse, Elena confronted Stefan about how he had repeatedly ignored her, and he told her that it was because she reminded him of a dead girlfriend. He was initially angry at her claim to understand how it felt, but then took her hand and kissed her. He later drove her home, where they found police cars. Vickie had been attacked, and Elena was missing.The Awakening - Chapter 8 Stefan worried that he might have been the one to attack Vickie, remembering entering the ruined church but nothing between then and saving Elena.The Awakening - Chapter 9 In school the following day, Stefan and Elena spent lunch together in a corner of the field, though Stefan did not bring any food. Caroline went looking for him, and was not happy about seeing him with Elena.The Awakening - Chapter 10 That week, he arrived at Elena's house every evening for a walk in the dusk, or just to sit on her porch and talk. He made sure that they were never together in private, as a way of protecting her honour, as was the case with him and Katarina in the 1510s. However, Stefan did not discuss his family or his life before Fell's Church, though he did imply that he missed Italy. He also refused to talk about Katarina's ring, which she felt underneath his shirt. His worrying about being tempted to feed on Elena acted as a wedge between the two, as Elena could feel that there was something getting between them.The Awakening - Chapter 11 Tanner's murder and confronting Damon Stefan took Elena to the Haunted House fund-raiser, where he was dressed as Dracula. He was taken aback by Elena's Italian Renaissance dress, which only made her look more like Katarina. He used Influence on Mr Tanner when he displayed resistance to acting as the Bloody Corpse. He chose to serve coffee in the locker-room rather than greeting people with Matt, feeling tired from using Influence. He fell unconscious, and was found by Matt, who informed him that Tyler had accused him of killing Mr Tanner and that everybody was looking for him. Stefan left, asking Matt to look after Elena.The Awakening - Chapter 12 Stefan returned to the boardinghouse, angrily destroying things in his room. He came to believe that he must have been the one to kill Mr Tanner, as well as the one behind the attacks on the homeless man and Vickie Bennett. He proceeded to go hunting, returning to the widow's walk with two doves, which he killed. Elena climbed up to the roof and saw him, falling back onto a rusty railing and falling to the ground. Stefan caught her and lead her back to his room, where he told her that he was a vampire, and the story behind how he became one. After telling her about Damon, Elena said that she believed he too was in Fell's Church, and that she had seen him three times, one of which was at the fund-raiser. She also suggested that his memory loss and confusion could have been caused by Damon. Stefan exchanged blood with her per her insistence, and promised that they would be together. After Elena left, Stefan drove along Old Creek Road to where he had fed on the first day of school, where he had been watched by a crow, which he had come to rightly believe was Damon. Damon was, indeed, there, and he admitted to what Stefan and Elena had suspected. He also displayed his Powers, and told him that he wanted Elena. Damon then fed on Stefan before leaving.The Awakening - Chapter 15 As Stefan made for his car, he was attacked by an unseen assailant and fell unconscious. It was Katarina, who proceeded to trap him in a well on the Francher property.The Fury - Chapter 5 The police went looking for Stefan, at the boardinghouse and at Robert E. Lee, finding his car abandoned. They believed that Stefan had gone on the run.The Awakening - Chapter 16 Stefan was rescued from the well by Elena, Meredith, Bonnie and Matt, using a rope to pull him up. He was weak and hungry, and Matt wanted to take him to the clinic to be seen by a doctor. However, Stefan made Elena promise him that they would not take him to a doctor.The Struggle - Chapter 3 Physical description Stefan had dark"His hair was wavy—and dark." (The Awakening - Chapter 2) and curly"The dark curly hair framed features so fine that they might have been taken from an old Roman coin or medallion. High cheekbones, classical straight nose... and a mouth to keep you awake at night, Elena thought. The upper lip was beautifully sculpted, a little sensitive, a whole lot sensual." (The Awakening - Chapter 2) hair, pale skin,"'' He had the same dark hair, the same pale skin, the same disturbing good looks." (The Struggle'' - Chapter 1) eyes as green as oak leaves,"'' And for an instant his eyes had lightened, the green sparkling like oak leaves reflected in a running stream." (The Awakening'' - Chapter 11) and a lean, flat-muscled body"From where she stood, Elena could see he had a lean, flat-muscled body." (The Awakening - Chapter 2) and long legs."That lithe, flat-muscled body, those long legs..." (The Awakening - Chapter 4) While he was considered tall during his life,Bonnie McCullough: Dark, yes, and a stranger... but not tall. Although, he was tall, once. (The Awakening - Chapter 2) he was just average in comparison to those of the 21st century."He wasn't tall, though. Just average height." (The Awakening - Chapter 2) He had high cheekbones, a straight nose, and a sensitive and sensual upper lip, looking like an Emperor from a Roman coin. In the 16th century, Stefan wore high-necked shirts,"They were hidden by the high neck of his shirt." (The Awakening - Chapter 13) and was taught by Signore Marino to dress as befit his position. He also wore Katarina's ring on a chain under his clothes until giving it to Elena. In the 21st century, he often wore tight, white T-shirts, faded jeans, and black leather jackets of a cut considered unusual in America,"Faded jeans he probably had to peel off at night, tight T-shirt, and a leather jacket of unusual cut." (The Awakening - Chapter 2) usually with his collar up."Every night this week he'd come to her house, appearing at the door around sunset, hands in pockets, wearing his jacket with the collar turned up." (The Awakening - Chapter 10)"He was dressed for outdoors, his jacket collar turned up." (The Struggle - Chapter 13) Most of the time, he would wear rough woollen sweaters under his jacket."The roughness of his woollen sweater under her cheek, the smell of his leather jacket, the strength of his arms around her." (The Struggle - Chapter 2) He also wore boots."He'd just returned from the woods, and a few scraps of wet leaf clung to the side of his boot." (The Awakening - The Awakening#Chapter 3) At formal occasions, Stefan would wear something such as a white cashmere sweater underneath a black blazer of a subtly different and more elegant cut to those worn by his classmates."His black blazer was of a subtly different cut than the other boys', more elegant, and he wore a white cashmere sweater under it." (The Awakening - Chapter 6) Personality and traits Stefan was protective of his friends, going so far as to manipulate them in order to keep them safe, as he did when pretending not to care about Matt Honeycutt, Meredith Sulez and Bonnie McCullough and saying that they only got in his way to protect them from Klaus.Meredith Sulez: Don't you see what he's doing, Matt? Yelling at us, making us hate him to try and chase us away. Being as nasty as possible so we'll stay mad and let him do this alone. (Dark Reunion - Chapter 14) He had a strong sense of duty to Florence during his life,Damon Salvatore: He is too attached to ordinary things: his friends, his family, his duty to Florence. The darkness would destroy him. (The Awakening - Chapter 13) unlike Damon, but he was willing to give it up for Katarina. He had strong morals that he lived by, such as his policies on how to use Power and how to treat humans, though he was not above breaking his own rules when roused to great anger.The Struggle - Chapter 16 After Elena's supposed death at Wickery Bridge, he attacked Tyler Smallwood, Caroline Forbes and their friends in order to equal or exceed Damon in terms of Power. Stefan felt guilty about killing Damon and condemning him to live as a vampire, but was most affected by Katarina's supposed suicide, blaming himself for having caused it.Stefan Salvatore: She gave her life... for that. We killed her. (The Awakening - Chapter 14) He carried Katarina's ring with him always. Because of this guilt, Stefan could not, initially, bear to be around Elena, who was similar to her in appearance.The Awakening - Chapter 8 Stefan had a strong connection to his friends and family during his life, and became incredibly lonely after becoming a vampire and leaving Florence. He hoped to find a place to belong in Fell's Church, though he did not believe that he would ever truly be accepted there."Most of all, he was tired of being alone. He wasn't sure why he'd chosen Fell's Church, Virginia. It was a young town, by his standards; the oldest buildings had been put up only a century and a half ago. But memories and ghosts of the Civil War still lived here, as real as the supermarkets and fast-food joints. Stefan appreciated respect for the past. He thought he might come to like the people of Fell's Church. And perhaps—just perhaps—he might find a place among them. He'd never be accepted completely, of course. A bitter smile curved his lips at the idea. He knew better than to hope for ''that. There would never be a place where he could belong completely, where he could truly be himself." (The Awakening'' - Chapter 1) Despite this longing, he avoided people while at Robert E. Lee.Elena Gilbert: He seems so isolated, so lonely. Even though it's his own choice. He's made quite a hit on the football team, but he doesn't hang around with any of the guys, except maybe Matt. Matt's the only one he talks to. He doesn't hang around with any girls, either, that I'' can see, so maybe the narc rumor is doing some good. But it's more like he's avoiding other people than they're avoiding him. He disappears in between classes and after football practice, and I've never once seen him in the cafeteria. (The Awakening'' - Chapter 6) Behind the scenes *Although Stefan transforms into a falcon in The Struggle, it is a hawk that he can transform into in The Return: Nightfall. However, given L.J. Smith's confusion between falcons and hawks (Talon is referred to as both multiple times) it is uncertain which is correct. *In The Awakening, Stefan tells Elena that he crossed paths with Damon "once or twice" between becoming vampires and meeting at Fell's Church, with Damon threatening to kill him. However, in The Return: Nightfall, it is said that Damon had spent those five centuries repeatedly tracking him down and making his life miserable, with Stefan escaping each time. Appearances *''The Awakening'' *''After Hours'' *''The Struggle'' *''The Fury'' *''Dark Reunion'' *''Blood Will Tell'' *''The Return: Nightfall'' *''The Return: Shadow Souls'' *''The Return: Midnight'' *''Evensong: Paradise Lost'' *''Evensong: The War of Roses'' Notes and references Category:Salvatore family Category:Vampires Category:Italian individuals Category:Fell's Church residents Category:15th century births Category:16th century changes Category:Changed by Katarina von Swartzschild Category:Elena Gilbert's romantic interests